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My name is Ray and I am from the Joliet, Illinois area and I spend a lot of time fishing the private club strip mines and pits in the braidwood, wilmington, and coal city area for largemouth. these lakes are very deep in there main areas with very quick deep drop offs and alot of deep thick vegetation on these drop offs as alot of you may already know from fishing them. These lakes are also crystal clear! My hope is if anyone out there knows how to properly fish these waters for BIG FISH. There definitely in there, i see them in there all the time swimming around. But alls I do is catch tons of little fish. Does anyone know where these bigger fish like to hang out in these strip pits and how to fish them? Thanks a ton guys and have a great day. Ray [email protected]

Ray, having fished clear deep pits for many years, I suggest using topwater baits early and late or on cloudy rainy days. When it's really tough, I use a clear topwater plastic bait, it will work. Use lite line, about eight pound test, I never use less. Fish a Storm Chug Bug, Torpedo or Zara Spook right over the fifteen to twenty feet depth, the larger fish will likely be at this depth. They will come up and get it. On calm days don't impart much action, just ripple the water, don't slash it. Another technique I like is to fish a number four or five Mepps-in line spinner down about ten feet, this will take some nice suspended bass and many of the larger, clear water bass will be suspended. Slow steady retrive. One more tip, but it's nerve wracking. When you can actually see the big bass, I try to use a number one Daiichi bass hook and thread on a two or three inch curly tail grub, no weight. I cast beyond the bass, let the curly tail fall naturally which is very slow and sometimes the big bass will take it. Not sure why this works, but it does, but you must be patient.
Maybe Dan Galusha will answer this post, he's very good in pits and clear water situations. Or you may contact him at his posted e-mail address. Good luck, Johnnie

Ray,

As a kid I fished a pit near my home that fits the typical description you posted. The only difference was that the pit I fished had little to no weed growth.

My best advise if this is possible is to fish this pit at night. I have had a blast fishing these types of waters at night. The larger bass arent as spooky and will move onto shallow ledges or flats where you can target them easier. I would suggest large slow moving baits at night for big fish. Black 1/2oz buzzbaits, large bladed spinnerbaits ( size 6 - 8 blades ) large topwater baits such as a musky Jitterbug, large 10" + wors with heavy thumper tails and one of my favorite night time baits a big bulky jig with a large trailer. The trick is to fish a jig just heavy enough to still have good bait awareness, but you want a very slow fall. Most times the bass will take the jig as it falls after hitting the water. If you do not have access to shallow flats where you believe the larger bass may be holding after dark, this is also a great bait to throw against vertical walls. ( target rockslides!! )
Darker colors normaly produce.

Ray,
I’ve fished some of the pits in Illinois. One is as you described, with the tall subsurface weeds.

One of the things I target is anything different, as is done in most lakes. There are often some sort of wood structures that have fallen in from shore, or some how got to the bottom. I also like fishing the weed breaks and outer edges. The weed breaks will act just like a bottom break, as they will go with the contour, and the fish can hold near the tops of these areas.

On more aggressive days the fish can ambush prey from just inside the outer edges of the
weed lines. Days after a front, when they are more negative the fish will move back into the weeds further.

As for lures, I use just about everything, but there are a few I’ve found to be a little more productive. They are as follows:

White jig with a white or white/silver tail curl tail grub trailer. This is swam with a
pumping motions.

White soft plastic jerk worm rigged on a Daiichi Copperhead Bleeding Bait hook. This
can be weighted or unweighted, depending on the fall desired. Start from the surface of
the weeds, and work slowly deeper until the area of strikes are found. If weighting the
lure insert a small nail on the inside of the body. It will be hidden, and add enough weight needed to fall deeper, while not destroying the appearance and action.

Black/blue jig with the new Larew black/blue finesse craw worm. Swim, bottom bounce,
or pitch the jig into open holes in the weeds. Be sure to fish this around any of the down timber, or previously mentioned cover.

Black neon, watermelon or pumpkinseed Larew Mega Ring Tube, Texas rigged with a 4/0
XGap Xpoint hook. I’ve been known for tube fishing, but this tube has shown me such
great results for larger bass that I have placed it right along side with the jib combination as my “big fish getter”. The action in the water, especially when crawling over any sort of cover is fantastic. I was watching it in clear water last week, and my partner said he could
see why I was having such a great average size on this lure. I have a computer program
which gives me complete details on my fishing trips, including keeping track of all
information on lures used. On this lure in the past couple of years I’ve had a 2 to 2 1/2 pound catch average. The smallest were a very few 12 inch bass, but the rest were far past it. I have found not to use this lure if fish are a little more finicky, and wanting something with less body.

Electric grape, black, black grape, watermelon, pumpkinseed and Tequila Sunrise, are all colors for worms that have been successful. My best worms have been the Gambler Ribbon Tail, Berkley Power Worm and Mann’s Augertail Worm, all in the 6 to 7 inch size. Crankbaits have produced a few when running them parallel to the week lines, and over any deep humps that can be found. If there are any islands trying fishing these, especially in the fall where the island points meet to make a saddle area. Again, look for any structure on these areas. A few years ago I got a 10 pounder off a spot like this in October while fishing a Tennessee Shad Poe’s 400.

While on the subject of crankbaits, lipless rattling lures, such as the Rat-L-Trap, have
produced a few fish off the weed edges, again when paralleling. You may hear some
people say rattles scar fish in clear water, but this is not true. In fact, I think it makes the fish curious as to what is coming along. Divers click rocks together to draw fish out from hiding, and a school of bait fish will make a sort of rattling noise, so the Rat-L-Trap can do the same. My best color has been chrome/black back.

In the spring try lizards. My best has been a 6 inch, Mann’s Hank’s Lizard in
watermelon/chartreuse. This has also worked in late June and early July.

Fishing in clear water can also push a person to fishing smaller lures. Some very good success has come on the 4” sizes of the Berkley Power Finesse Worm, Gambler Bacon
Strip, and Mann’s Jelly Worm. The colors have been black, watermelon and pumpkinseed. I’ve rigged these on lead head jigs, usually 1/16 to 1/8 ounce size, with as
small as a number 4 hook, up to a number 2/0 hook. The smaller hook made it much
more difficult to land the bass, but in several cases I needed the smaller profile and shank to provide more of a leech type action. The larger hooks will give more advantage for hooking, but with the longer shank it will stiffen a larger part of the worm, so not as much waving action is present when swimming the lure.

I’m sure there is more, but at the moment it escapes my brain. So if something pops up,
I’ll be back to post more.

Best of fishing,
Dan